A baby girl left at a firehouse in Deerfield Beach in June, when she was 2 days old, was formally adopted Tuesday by longtime foster parents eager for a child of their own.
Now 8 months old, the infant, nicknamed Baby Hope by the firefighters, is the daughter of Michael and Lori Lewis of Fort Lauderdale.
The child's new name: Gloria Hope Lewis.
"We're, like, bubbling," Michael Lewis, a father for the first time at 43, said during a pizza party to celebrate the adoption at Kids in Distress, a foster care and adoption agency in Wilton Manors.
The baby is thought to be one of 18 children in Florida saved under a July 2000 law permitting mothers to drop off newborns, within three days of birth, at firehouses, hospitals or emergency medical stations anonymously, without fear of prosecution, according to A Safe Haven for Newborns, a Miami nonprofit organization established to publicize Florida's law and provide a hotline for mothers to get information and referrals.
The law is designed to encourage young desperate women who are unprepared for motherhood to seek safe shelter for their babies, rather than leaving them to die in trash bins, canals or bathrooms.
"You see Gloria Hope, what a beautiful baby she is inside and out. That life is saved," said Nick E. Silverio, founder of A Save Haven for Newborns.
The laws, in place in 45 states, have their detractors, however.
Some child welfare and adoption rights experts argue that the laws do not provide for medical or other records of the babies' histories, set arbitrary age limits, disregard the rights of fathers, and provide no medical or mental health assistance for the mothers.
Silverio dismisses such criticisms.
"Yes, they don't know their medical records; yes, they may never know their biological parent; but ... if this law didn't exist, they might not be alive to even have to know about it."
Other South Florida children affected by the law include a baby left at a Carol City fire station in September 2001 and a 2-month-old infant, dubbed Baby Sunshine, left near a Miramar firehouse in March 2002. Because the child was older than 3 days, police found her destitute mother and reunited the two.
On Father's Day last year, the hotline (877-767-2229) run by A Safe Haven for Newborns received a call from Baby Hope's mother, a woman in her early 20s.
She told the operator she had a 2-day-old girl she could not take care of.
The charity directed her to the Deerfield Beach firehouse, where she walked in and left the baby. Firefighters took the baby to the Coral Springs Medical Center, where she was handed over to Kids in Distress.
Just back from a vacation in North Carolina, the Lewises got a call from a Kids in Distress social worker: Baby Hope would be theirs to adopt.
"I was just beyond myself," Michael Lewis said. "You don't expect something like that to happen."
At Kids in Distress on Tuesday, Kingman D. Schuldt, regional director of the state fire chiefs association, dropped by the party to see Gloria Hope on behalf of the Deerfield Beach firefighters. "This is very gratifying for us," he said.
Lori Lewis thanked him and gave him a kitchen magnet emblazoned with the words: "Everyday Hero."
"I just can't put it into words," she told him. "It's just a miracle."
The couple formally adopted another girl, too, on Tuesday: 4-year-old Erika, a foster child who has been in their home since April.
"We're doubly blessed," said Lori Lewis, 38.
Two days after leaving the baby at the fire station, Baby Hope's mother called the hotline again, saying she had two letters for the Lewises, one thanking them for taking the baby and one to be read by the child when she's older, saying her mother loved her but could not properly provide for her.
Silverio met the woman at a church to collect the notes. "It was a very emotional meeting," he said. "She was at peace with the decision. But this was a heart-wrenching decision."
